


Who's the Damsel In Distress Now?!

by daisy_is_always_cold



Series: Marvel Oneshots [17]
Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-05
Updated: 2020-10-05
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:33:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26828158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/daisy_is_always_cold/pseuds/daisy_is_always_cold
Summary: After being cryogenically frozen, your reunion with Steve doesn't got that well...until it does.
Relationships: Howard Stark/Reader, James "Bucky" Barnes/Reader, James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers, Steve Rogers/Reader, Tony Stark/Reader
Series: Marvel Oneshots [17]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1956661
Kudos: 31





	Who's the Damsel In Distress Now?!

When Fury had pulled you from the cryogenic chamber, you knew no one. Howard Stark had put you in said chamber years and years ago and apparently, by the time someone pulled you out, he was dead. You found out that his death wasn’t exactly planned so he hadn’t had the time to put your plans into place, but still, you had none of the preparations that you were supposed to. 

After Steve went down in the plane, your brother, Howard found a way to recreate the serum, but he found a way to make it better. Too much better. Not only did you gain the slower aging, the super strength, the faster healing, but you also gained telekinetic abilities and they were too much for either of you to control. 

You two did study after study trying to figure out the best way to control your abilities and the only thing that yielded any positive results was long periods of exposure to cold. According to your calculations, the more years that you could spend in a cryogenic chamber, the better you could control your powers. So the two of you developed a plan. You would spend as much time as possible in the chamber and when Howard knew that he didn’t have much time left, he’d let you out, just in time to be there for the children that he would probably have. By then, enough time would pass for some control and maybe enough time for technologies to develop to help with your powers. 

But Howard was killed. And no one knew about you. That is, until Fury found Howard’s secret base, all his records of you, and you in same chamber you’d been in for years. 

You were defrosted and couldn’t even get out of S.H.I.E.L.D. to see the real world before Fury had you working on control, which was much easier now, and training for almost immediate return to duty. Neither your close friend, Steve, nor your nephew, Tony, were made aware of your presence. As far as Steve knew, you died along with everyone else from his old life, and as far as Tony knew, you had disappeared years ago while working on a project with his father (another thing that he secretly blamed his father for). 

You became what Fury called a “Classified Avenger”. You’d been defrosted after the events of New York and Fury didn’t want the rest of the team aware of you mostly because he didn’t want Tony and Steve aware of you. You couldn’t say that you agreed with Fury’s choice but you didn’t exactly have a choice in the matter so you kept your head down, did your best to keep yourself in control, and did what you were told. 

It was right around Christmas and you’d just returned from a mission in Spain when you saw Steve in Fury’s office. You were about to barge in and give Fury the report but you quickly turned and bolted when you saw your former friend. But you didn’t bolt fast enough. You were almost around the corner when you heard the familiar voice: 

“(Y/N), is that you?” 

You walked faster, trying to pretend that you hadn’t heard him. You turned around the corner and then down the first hallway you could find, and then the next. Somehow, probably mostly thanks to luck, you lost him. But he had seen you, and you knew that now, there was nothing anyone could do to stop him from figuring out what happened to you. 

You returned to your bunk and hid for the better part of an hour before you deemed it safe to try to talk to Fury again. The coast was clear so you gave him your report and warned him about Steve. 

And that was the last you thought of him for weeks. You spent your first Christmas defrosted alone in a bunker on the boarder between the U.S. and Canada.

When you finally escaped the bunker a week later, Fury ordered you not to return to base. And you only knew of one place outside of S.H.I.E.L.D. so you went from one bunker to another and waited for Fury to give you the all clear. But it didn’t come. You weren’t sure how long you were going to last in the bunker, you were bored out of your mind. You learned how to use a computer, caught up on a million things that you’d missed since you’d been frozen, and discovered this beautiful thing called Netflix. 

On the morning of fourteenth day in the bunker, you awoke to the sound of someone or something in the main area. This was odd, as you were sure that you were the only one still alive that knew about this place, and you hadn’t told anyone where you were. You grabbed your Icer and approached the main area of the bunker silently and positioned yourself at the corner. You heard a clash from the kitchen area and then someone cursing, “Shit!” You heard someone else sigh and you waited another second before you turned the corner, Icer raised. 

There was another crash as a dish fell to the ground and shattered. 

“(Y/N).” Steve’s utterly shocked voice rang out. 

“Steve? What are you doing here?” You dropped the gun down to your side. 

“Tony and I came to find you.” 

“But nobody knows about this place except me.” You were confused. 

“I know about it. I know about all of my father’s properties.” The other man said. “Tony Stark.” He introduced himself to you. But you already knew who he was. 

The confusion didn’t escape your face, despite the fact that you now knew who was here and how they’d found you. This wasn’t supposed to be happening, you’d been hidden here so they wouldn’t find you. You weren’t sure that you wanted them to find you. You kind of liked this fresh beginning that you’d been given without anyone knowing who you were. 

Eventually, Steve convinced you to sit down on the couch and talk to him and Tony. 

“What happened after I went down in the plane?” Steve asked quietly. “I couldn’t find any records.” 

Your training and natural abilities made it incredibly easy for you to read people and you could tell that he wanted to be closer to you right now. He’d situated himself on an armchair across from you. Back in the 40’s, the two of you had been practically inseparable, and you sort of wished that he was closer to. 

“I can answer that question.” Tony said. “My father tried to recreate your super soldier serum. He needed a test subject and so she volunteered, but the serum was different from yours and she gained abilities beyond what was originally planned, they grew to be uncontrollable, and so dear old Dad chucked her into a cryogenic chamber to be dealt with at a later date. Of course, he died before he could pull her out.” 

“That’s not the whole story.” You muttered. 

“Could you tell me the whole story?” Steve was treating you as if you were fragile and you might break.

“Yes, I volunteered, yes, my abilities grew out of control, but it was my decision to go into cryo.” 

“What?” 

“My abilities were erratic, uncontrollable, and were harming those around me. Howard and I scoured the globe for solutions and the only thing we could find that made them any better was long exposure to cold. Howard just wanted to move me to Alaska, but I knew it wasn’t going to be enough so I told him to put me in cryo. We fought about it for weeks until I accidently set a building on fire, and then he was willing to try.” 

“Are you more in control now?” Steve asked. 

“Much more. And this,” You held up your wrist which held a bracelet to help mute your powers if necessary, “makes it easier too.” 

“Why was Fury hiding you from us?” Tony spoke up. 

“I have no idea.” You said “But I don’t disobey orders. That’s always been more of Steve’s department.” You smiled and Steve gave you a look of betrayal. 

“Woah, woah, woah, you’re saying that Cap isn’t a perfect soldier?”

“Oh, far from it.” You were laughing a little now. 

“Don’t you dare.” Steve warned. 

“He’s the worst that I’ve ever seen and I’ve seen a lot of soldiers.” Your smile grew bigger. “One time, when we were-” Before you could finish, or even anticipate it, Steve was up and tackling you off the couch. 

“I warned you.” He laughed. You were giggling on the floor next to him. 

“I’ve missed you, Steve.” You gave him a big hug, which, of course, he returned. You turned to Tony, “Don’t worry, I’ve got a million stories about this one. None of which he probably wants told.” 

“Hey!” Steve exclaimed. “You know I’ve got stories about you too.”

“None of them are nearly as bad as the ones that I can tell.” 

You talked to Steve and Tony for a while before you all decided that you no longer needed to stay at the bunker. You put on some actual clothes and Tony and Steve took you back to HQ to yell at Fury. 

After a very heated conversation between the others, it was decided that you would move into Avengers Tower and become a full time Avenger, and not a classified one. You packed up the few belongings that you’d collected over the past few months and followed Steve onto a Quinjet back to New York. The two of you spent the entire trip talking and catching up while Tony flew the plane and looked a little left out. 

You arrived in the early evening and Tony showed you to your new room so you could get comfortable before dinner. You decided to take a shower and had just finished when there was a knock on your door. 

“Hey, Steve.” You smiled when you opened to door. “What’s up?” 

“I just figured that you’d want someone familiar when you meet the rest of the crew. And someone had to tell you that it’s time for dinner because Tony hasn’t set up Jarvis in your room yet.” 

“Jarvis?” 

“It’s Tony’s A.I. in the tower.”

“Ah. And I would love an escort to the dining area.” You smirked. 

“Is that all I am to you?” Steve joked. 

“Why, of course, darling, why did you think I keep you around? For your looks?” You put on your best rich old lady voice. The two of you laughed as he led you down to the correct floor. He could sense that you were nervous about meeting the others and decided that the best strategy to help with this was to completely distract you from the matter at hand. The task was easy enough. He offered his arm to you as the elevator doors opened and you gratefully took it. This was not exactly how you’d been expecting your day to go. The two of you stepped out of the elevator and were immediately met with the greetings of the other members of the team. You were introduced to everyone: Natasha, Clint, Sam, Wanda, Bruce, Thor, and…

“Bucky!” You dropped Steve’s arm and rushed over to hug your friend. 

“Hey, (Y/N)!” The smile on his face was just as big as yours. 

“You made it through time too?” 

“Yep.” He smiled. 

“It’s good to see you.” 

“It’s good to see you too.” 

You made it through the pre-dinner conversation without much of a problem, though you felt out of place and a little awkward, and stuck with Bucky and Steve (mostly Steve) through the rest of the evening. The next morning, you woke at the crack of dawn and went to wake Steve for a run. You hadn’t slept very well--you never did in a new place--and you’d given up as soon as the sun had begun to rise. He’d shown you where his room was last night and you found the door easily. You knocked on the door twice and the door opened almost immediately. 

“Couldn’t sleep?” You asked. 

“I assume you couldn’t either.” 

“Go for a run?” 

“Yeah.” He smiled. “I’ve got a good route.” 

You followed Steve out of the tower and on what appeared to be his usual route for a run. By the time you got back to the tower, it was still way too early for either of you two to be awake. You flopped down on the couch and Steve sat down next to you.

“So now what?” You asked. 

“I dunno, do you want to make breakfast?” 

“Sure. But I don’t really know how to make anything.”

“Really? You used to be able too cook in the 40’s.” 

“Steve, all I made successfully in the 40’s was premade meals that required practically no effort.” 

“And you didn’t learn how to cook after getting out of cryo?” 

“Fury put me on my first mission two days after I came out of cryo. I haven’t had more than a day off since.” You shrugged. “I didn’t have any reason to learn, anyway.” 

“Wow.” He sighed “Well, I’ll teach you, if you want.” 

“Sure, why not.” You could tell that something that you’d said had upset him, at least a little bit. He dragged you to the kitchen, your body was starting to ache from the run, and decided that pancakes were the first thing that he was going to teach you to make. He started to get the ingredients out, but it was clear to you that something was wrong. 

“Steve, what’s up?” You asked. “Something’s wrong.” 

“Nothing’s wrong.” He said and turned towards the pantry.

“Don’t lie to me.” 

“It’s just...it bothers me that Fury didn’t really give you any time to adjust from getting out of cryo. And it bothers me that he kept you a secret from me for so long. Just all of it.” He let out a sigh. 

“Steve, look I don’t understand it either, but it’s okay. If there’s anything that I’ve learned, it’s that holding a grudge against him for this isn’t going to accomplish anything, especially because it’s Fury. He’s going to keep making mistakes and there’s no point in being angry with him. I’d like to have seen you sooner too, but it is what is it is.” 

“I know, it just still bothers me.” 

“Come on, let’s make pancakes.” You gave him a small smile. 

“Okay.” He smiled back. 

You spent the next few days in the company of Steve almost 24/7. The times you were without him, you were with Bucky or Tony. You trained with the Avengers, but Fury had yet to send you on a mission with them. Steve taught you how to cook new meals and taught him about your newly-discovered Netflix. 

When Fury finally put you on a mission, you and Bucky were the only ones excited for your debut. Steve was nervous that you weren’t ready, and so was Tony. To be fair, Tony had never seen you in the field before, but you had more faith in Steve. He proved you wrong. 

You and Bucky played card games on the floor of the Quinjet while Steve piloted. 

“Hah!” You cried as you won...again. 

“That’s not fair! You’re cheating!” 

“No, I’m not!”

“Yes, you are!” 

“You’re just horrible at this game.” You smirked. 

“One more time! I’m gonna win this time, I swear.” 

“Yeah, sure you are.” 

“I wouldn’t start another game, guys. We’re only ten minutes out.” 

“And I secure a 100% winning streak!” You laughed and started to pack up the cards. 

“She’s cheating, Steve, I swear it.” 

“Whatever you say, Buck.” Steve smiled and you giggled. 

When the Quinjet hit solid ground, you got up from the floor and changed the settings on your power-muffling bracelet. 

“You sure you’re ready for this?” Steve asked. 

“Steve, I’ve been fightings since the 40’s, and I’ve been on plenty of missions the past few months without you. I’ll be fine.” 

“Okay, I’m just making sure.” 

“No, you’re being an overprotective idiot who thinks you have to take care of me because I’m a woman.” 

Bucky snickered and Steve turned a little red before shifting his attention to mission details. He went over the plan one more time before you headed out. It was a small Hydra base and your goal was to take out the base and successfully extract the two undercover S.H.I.E.L.D. agents on the base. It was going to be an easy mission, you just knew it. 

Not long after, you proved your point. You were doing fine, absolutely fine, when Steve “came to your rescue”. 

“I’ve got it under control.” You exclaimed as you kicked a Hydra agent in the face. “I don’t need your help.” 

“I’m just here to help!” 

“Guys, I need backup!” Bucky called through the comms. 

“Go help Bucky!” 

Steve turned away from the agent he was fighting to speak to you, but before he could utter a word, the agent fired at you. 

“Ow, that really fucking hurt!” You cried out as you took out another agent and reached for your arm, which now had a bullet lodged in it. 

“You guys, we gotta get back to the jet!” You heard Bucky shout through the comms. “I found Agent Smith, but she doesn’t know where Andrews is. There are too many of them. We gotta go.” 

“(Y/N)’s hit. We’ll meet you back at the jet.” 

“My first mission with the Avengers was a failure! Of course!” You sighed, clutching your arm. 

“C’mon, we gotta go.” Steve said, pulling you towards the exit as more agents surrounded you. 

Steve had the jet started before Bucky and the other agent arrived. As soon as you were in the air, Bucky turned his attention to you.

“What happened, (Y/N)?” 

“Steve is an idiot.” 

“I was trying to make sure you were safe!” 

“Bucky, please tell Steve that I’m not talking to him.” 

“Steve, (Y/N) isn’t-”

“I heard her. How is it my fault for trying to make sure that you were safe on the mission?” 

“Bucky, please tell Steve that I’m not talking to him.” 

“Fine.” Steve grumbled. “I’m flying us home.” 

The flight back to the tower seemed to last forever. Between the heavy silence and the bleeding wound in your arm, nothing could have made the flight slower. When you finally arrived at the tower, Bruce rushed you off to fix your wound before Steve could make another attempt at speaking to you. 

Bruce patched you up and Friday told you to head to conference room. Your pain meds were kicking in and you started to feel a little woozy but that didn’t stop you from showing up in the conference room. Bucky and Steve were sitting on opposite sides of the big table and Fury was standing at the other end of the room. You made your way over and sat down next to Bucky. 

“You three are Avengers! You’re supposed to be good at your jobs! But, not only did you fail to complete the mission, one of you got hit in the process! What the hell happened?!” 

“It’s Steve’s fault.” You exclaimed, pointing at him with your unharmed arm. 

“Hey!” 

“I don’t know what went on with those two, but Agent Smith and I encountered more Hydra agents than originally expected. And we don’t know where Agent Andrews is.” Bucky explained. 

“So you were doing your job, and what exactly where these other two dumbasses doing?” 

“I was taking out the other agents, trying to get to the back room where I thought Agent Andrews was when Steve decided to show up and ‘save the damsel in distress’, but I am no damsel and I was not in distress!” 

“But how did you get hurt?” 

“Steve lost focus and an agent shot me.” 

“I was just trying to help you!” 

“Bucky, please tell Steve that I didn’t need help.” 

“Steve, (Y/N) didn’t need-”

“I know I heard her.” He turned to you. “I know this whole team-thing might be new to you, but on this team, we work together!” 

“This was not you helping me! This was you trying to protect me because you think I’m a weak little woman who can’t protect herself!” You were practically yelling. 

“I was looking out for my teammate!” 

“If you hadn’t been there, I could’ve gotten to the back room, I could have gotten to Andrews!” 

“You didn’t even know if he was there!”

“If he wasn’t there, then he wasn’t on the base, and then we would know that!” 

“Look, I acknowledge that it is my fault that you got shot, I lost focus. But I’m not going to apologize for trying to help you!” 

“Bucky needed your help more than I did! He even said it!” 

“You’re both idiots.” Fury cut in before you could keep fighting. “This mission failed, and you’re both idiots. (Y/N), rest, I’ll put you back on duty when you’re healed. We’ve got to wait until Andrews makes contact with us from wherever they’re going to move that base to. Then, I’m sending in Romanoff. She can do her damn job.” He dismissed you all and you stormed back to your room, slamming the door for effect, even though no one was there to hear it. 

You were so angry. Why did Steve think you needed help? You’d proven yourself many times in the field, you were doing fine. Hell, Bucky needed more help than you did, but he just wouldn’t hear it. You thought that, being out of the 40’s, he’d be better about this. But apparently, it was still only Peggy that was allowed to be a strong woman. You collapsed on your bed and asked Friday to play some music. You’d been working hard to catch up on music since you’d been defrosted and Friday had turned out to be a great resource. She’d pick a decade and play the top songs. All you had to do was listen. 

You laid in bed, listening to whatever Friday was playing for a very long time before there was a knock on your door. 

“Come in.” You grumbled, refusing to leave your bed. 

“Hey.” Steve said quietly as he entered your room. “You still mad at me?”

“Yes.” 

“I’m sorry.” He sat down on the edge of your bed. “You’re right, I made a bad call today. You had it under control and I screwed it up.” 

“Thank you. I know that was hard for you to admit.” You said. “But I need you to understand, if we’re going to be on missions together, you have to trust that I know what I’m doing and that I’m capable of protecting myself.” You sat up and pulled your knees up to your chest.

“I know. And I’m sorry that I didn’t trust you today. I’m going to work on this, and I still expect you to call me out when I screw up.”   
“You know I will.” You smiled. Steve stared at the wall for a second, you could tell that there was something that he still wasn’t telling you. 

“What’s going on in that head of yours?” You asked. 

“I guess I just—I’ve been thinking about this since we argued early. I just care about you so much and I’m so afraid that you’re going to get hurt...I don’t know, it’s not that I don’t trust you as much as I’m just so scared of what will happen to you if I’m not there.”

“Steve, I care about you too, but I still trust you to take care of yourself.” You spoke, misunderstanding what he was trying to tell you. 

“I know.” He lost all of his confidence in telling you his true feelings. “I’m going to head to bed. See you tomorrow?” 

“See you tomorrow.” You gave him a small smile. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

You could tell he was keeping something from you. It had been a week since your first mission, since your argument with Steve, and ever since, you could tell that there was something he wasn’t telling you. He seemed to be avoiding you too. 

You were sitting on a couch in the common area, halfheartedly watching whatever was on the TV. 

“Where’s Steve?” Bucky asked when he saw you on the couch. 

“I dunno.” You shrugged. “Why?” 

“You two are always together, it’s shocking when I find one of you without the other.” 

“Yeah, well, he’s been avoiding me the past few days.” You sighed. “Not sure why.”

“Huh. I can talk to him, if you want.” He offered. 

“Nah, if he’s got an issue with me, that’s something for he and I to deal with. Thanks, though.” 

“Anytime. You on the mission tomorrow?” 

“Yep. Bruce cleared me for field work again. But Fury won’t tell me who my mission partner is.” You sighed. “Says ‘I’ll have to wait and see’.” 

You saw a flicker of a smile on Bucky’s face. 

“What? Do you know something?” 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” 

“If you’re gonna lie to me, at least be good at it.” You said, still smiling. 

“Well, if Fury says that you’ll have to wait and see, then you’ll just have to wait and see. He’s the one who gives orders, after all.” He smirked. 

“You’re the worst, and I hate you.” You threw a pillow at him. 

“I’ll be here all week.” He winked and threw the pillow back at you. “I gotta go find Steve.” 

Your eyes turned back to the TV and you yawned. It was getting late and you knew that you should head to bed soon, you were going to have to get up early the next morning for this mission. 

When you finally made your way to your room, you ran into Steve in the hallway. 

“Hey.” You greeted. “Did Bucky find you? He was looking for you earlier.” 

“Yeah.” Steve said, speeding up as you passed. You watched him as he got further down the hallway, confused. What had you done to make him avoid you? 

Steve was all that you thought about as you stared at the ceiling and tried to sleep. You really wanted to know what was going on. And you missed him. He was your best friend, after all. Well, if you were being honest, he was probably more than your best friend. You’d tried to put your feelings for him to bed a long time ago. He had Peggy, and you knew that he was never going to see you that way. You were content to be his best friend, if that was as far as your relationship went. Friendship was better than nothing. You decided to talk to him tomorrow, the distance between the two of you was becoming too much. 

He was in your dreams that night. To be fair, he was usually there in some way, shape, or form, but it didn’t change the fact that there was no escape from thoughts of him. 

Your alarm woke you far earlier than you liked, but you had to get ready for your mission. You put on your suit and headed to the common area to grab something to eat. You found a granola bar and headed to the conference room. When you arrived, Fury was already there, and so was...Steve. Of course, he was your mission partner. You sighed. It had just gone so well last time. 

“Your target is often at this coffee shop,” Fury was already explaining the details to Steve. “The two of you are going to go undercover at this place, keep your eye on her. When she leaves, follow her. Hopefully, she’ll lead us to the base of operations we’re trying to locate.” 

Steve nodded. 

“Now, this is simply recon, no combat. Remember that.” Fury’s eyes flickered to you. 

“One time! That was one time!” You returned. “Are you really going to hold that above me forever? I was only a week out of cryo!”

“I was just making sure that you’re aware.” 

You sighed. “I’ve got to go change. I was expecting combat, not an undercover mission.” And you left before either of them could speak. 

You met Steve in the common area. 

“You ready?” You spoke, knowing that he would probably let the silence between you continue if you weren’t the one to break it.

“Yeah.” 

You stole the keys before he could even think about it, and the only sound that punctuated the silence as you drove to your destination was when you turned on the radio. You couldn’t take the awkward tension anymore. 

The coffee shop was quite crowded. You ordered drinks for the two of you: tea for you, coffee for him. You sat down at the table and handed him his drink. He was clearly scanning all of the faces in the shop, trying to locate your target. 

“Nothing yet.” He finally sighed, once his search was complete. 

“That’s okay, we’re a few minutes early, anyway.” You smiled. He looked out the window. You stared at him for a few moments, trying to work up the confidence to confront him. It wasn’t working, and then-

“What’s going on?” You finally spoke, almost immediately regretting it. 

“What do you mean?” He finally looked at you. 

“You’ve been avoiding me since our last mission, acting like I don’t exist. What did I do?” 

“No, you didn’t do anything.” Steve spoke. 

“Then what’s going on?! There’s clearly something.” 

“Nothing.” He stuttered out nervously. 

“You’re usually a better liar than this, Rogers.” 

“I’m not-”

“Cut the shit, what’s happening?” 

He looked down at his cup, out the window, across the shop, everywhere but your face. You were pretty sure he was working up the confidence to say whatever it was he was going to say, and you were about to speak again, but he blurted out the words:

“I love you.” He said them in a rush, you could barely understand what he was saying. But you did. 

“I’m sorry, what?” 

“I’m in love with you, (Y/N).” He paused, trying to read your expression, which was blank as you processed this new information. He started to ramble, “I’ve been in love with you since the 40’s. And after our mission last week, I just realized how much I’m still in love with you. After that, I just couldn’t do it, be close to you, I mean. It was too hard to only be your friend. And now, I’ve screwed that up anyway by telling you th-” 

You leaned across the table and shut him up, pressing your lips to his. When you pulled away, you spoke. 

“I love you too.” You said, barely above a whisper. 

Before either of you could say something more, you noticed that the target had just entered the coffee shop. 

“Shit, she’s here!” You muttered. 

The two of you made awkward conversation as you waited for her to pass you and go to the counter. Your mind was going a mile a minute, trying to process what had just happened and still focus on the mission. It wasn’t working. 

The girl didn’t stay after she got her drink, and the two of you had to postpone further talk about your relationship until after you completed the mission. You were sad to throw away your half-finished drink but you didn’t have much of a choice. 

You followed her to a warehouse, Steve by your side. She entered and Steve made the stupid decision to follow her. 

“This is just recon!” You whisper-shouted as he approached. “No combat!” He stepped through an open door.

“There’s no harm in looking.” He turned back to speak to you and disappeared into the building  
.   
“Hello, Agent (Y/L/N). It’s so lovely to see you.” A voice came through some sort of loudspeaker. 

“Who are you?” You got out from your hiding spot. 

“I think, the better question is: what am I going to do with you?” 

You let energy orbs form in your hands as you approached. 

“I think I have just the thing for your darling partner. But you? You, I’m not so sure about.” You could almost hear the smile in the voice. 

“Steve!” You tried to call out to him, but he didn’t hear you. 

A deafening noise filled your ears, and before you could react, the building was in a million pieces, Steve underneath it all. 

“Steve!” You cried again and rushed to the pile of debris, frantically clearing pieces out of your path. 

“(Y/N)!” You heard a muffled shout. 

“Steve! I’m on my way!” You pinpointed the place where his voice was coming from. Underneath the largest piece of debris. You yanked the bracelet off of your wrist that helped control your powers. Every ounce of energy you had, you put into lifting the rubble. You’d never forced your powers to this much of an extreme. You held your breath, and sent one final burst of energy through your system, and it was just enough to break most of it free. You moved a couple of other pieces and climbed into the clear area. 

“Are you okay?” 

“Ow.” Steve mumbled as he tried to move. 

“What hurts?”

“My leg.” He groaned. “It was crushed under that giant piece you moved.”

“C’mon. We gotta get you to Bruce.” You spoke and did your best to help him up. It took longer than you’d expected, and there was a lot of wincing on his part. When you finally got him standing, you helped him take a few steps before it became clear that Steve had severely injured his leg. 

“Alright.” You sighed. “We’re going to do this the hard way.” You picked him up bridal style and climbed over the pile of rubble, heading towards the car you’d taken. 

“I can walk.” Steve insisted. 

“No, you can’t.” 

You struggled to carry him, not because he was heavy, but because he was so much bigger than you. When you reached the car, you put him in the passenger’s seat. 

“Who’s the damsel now, huh?” You smirked, recalling your last mission. 

“Haha.” He muttered. “Just take me to Bruce.” 

You drove to the tower as quickly as you could and rushed up to the lab. 

“What happened?” Bruce asked upon your arrival. 

“Building blew up, collapsed on him.” You spoke hurriedly as you set him on a gurney. “He hurt his leg really bad.”

“What about you?”

“I’m fine, I wasn’t in the building.” 

Bruce started to examine Steve’s injuries, and you wanted to stay, but Fury appeared and gave you an angry look, and you had to go talk to him. 

“Sooo...things didn’t go as planned.” You spoke nervously when you reached him. 

“I can see that, (Y/L/N).” He glared. “What the hell happened?!” 

“We followed the target to a warehouse, Steve wanted to go in…” You continued to list the details of your failed mission. “...and whoever was on that loudspeaker, they knew we were coming.” 

“I see.” Fury spoke, his mind trying to work through what you’d told him. There was a pause for a moment. “You know, this is your second mission with the Avengers, and your second failed one too.” 

“I know.” You sighed. 

“I’m beginning to think it has something to do with your relationship with Steve.” 

“I think you might be right.” You murmured, watching through the window as Bruce continued his examination.   
“You need to get that under control.” 

“I know. I will.” You sighed. “We’re figuring it out.” 

“Well, figure it out faster. I can’t afford one of you getting hurt every time I send you out there.” 

“I’ll do my best.” You sighed. 

When Bruce was finally done with Steve, you reentered the room. 

“What’s the diagnosis?” You asked. 

“Broke my leg and bruised two ribs.” 

“I’m sorry.” You mumbled. “I should’ve been faster.” 

“Don’t go blaming yourself for this, no matter how fast you were, you couldn’t have gotten me out of there. It was my fault for going against the mission.” 

“You’re right, it’s totally your fault.” You joked.

“And you saved me.” 

“Indeed, I did.” You smirked. “I saved you, my damsel in distress.” 

“Hey!” He groaned. 

“What? I’m just pointing out the truth!” 

“You’re never going to let me live this down, are you?” 

“Nope. The almighty Captain America needed my help. I saved him!” 

“(Y/N), I’ve needed you since the moment we met. I will always need you.” 

“That was really fucking cheesy, Rogers.” 

“I know.”

“It’s a good thing I love you.” You smiled and leaned in to kiss him. 

“It’s a great thing.” He murmured and kissed you too.


End file.
